Sarah Anderson at People’s World asks the question: Why aren’t low wage Workers better paid?  After 30 years of research, Anderson says she can tell you it’s not because employers don’t have the cash - it’s because profitable corporations spend that money on their stock prices and CEOs instead.  Lowe’s, for example, spent $43 billion buying back its own stock over the past five years.  With that sum, the chain could’ve given each of its 285,000 Employees a $30,000 bonus every year for those five years.  Instead, half of Lowe’s Workers make less than $33,000. Meanwhile, CEO Marvin Ellison raked in $18 million in 2023.  Lowe’s ranks as an extreme example, but pumping up CEO pay at the expense of Workers and long-term investment is actually the norm among America’s leading low wage corporations.  In my latest Executive Excess report for the Institute for Policy Studies, Anderson found the 100 S&P 500 firms with the lowest median wages - the Low-Wage 100 - blew $522 billion on buybacks over the past five years.  Nearly half of these companies spent more on this once-illegal maneuver than they spent investing in their long-term competitiveness.  This is a scam to inflate CEO pay - pure and simple.

To Read This Labor News Story In Its Entirety, Go To: Low-wage corporations spent half-a-trillion on CEO pay and stock buybacks – People's World (peoplesworld.org)